HackMIT is an

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student-run hackathon held in the fall at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

History

HackMIT

The first HackMIT had around 150 attendees and took place in February 2013 at the Stata Center as part of MIT's Techfair, a technology fair and corporate expo for MIT students. The event was open to college students of the Northeastern United States and had Techfair and Palantir as its title sponsors.

HackMIT 2013

HackMIT was also held in the September of 2013 with 1000 attendees. The event featured Tom Lehman of

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(formerly Rap Genius) as a keynote speaker and Sequoia Capital as the event's title sponsor.

HackMIT 2014

In October, HackMIT 2014 invited 1000 undergraduates as well as Adora Cheung, then-CEO of Homejoy, and

Alexis Ohanian Alexis Kerry Ohanian ( hy, Ալեքսիս Քերի Օհանյան; born April 24, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder and executive chairman of the social media site Reddit along with Ste ...

, co-founder of

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, as keynotes. Highlighted sponsors of HackMIT 2014 were

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Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

, and

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...

HackMIT 2015

HackMIT 2015's theme was experimentation, and teams built projects ranging from an Apple Watch air guitar to computer vision analysis tools for security camera footage. Keynote speakers this year included Liz Fosslien, author of webcomic Out of the Office, and

Jack Conte Jack Conte (; born July 12, 1984) is an American musician and co-founder and CEO of Patreon. He is one half of the band Pomplamoose, along with his wife Nataly Dawn, co-leader of the band Scary Pockets, and leader of the band Magaziine. Career C ...

, musician and co-founder of

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HackMIT 2016

The 2016 event focused on inclusivity and featured a random lottery admissions process combined with selected application reading. Keynote speakers included

Sanjit Biswas Sanjit Biswas () is an American Internet entrepreneur and computer scientist and co-founder of Samsara (company), Samsara, an Internet of Things company headquartered in San Francisco, California that provides hardware and software for physical ope ...

, co-founder of Samsara and Meraki, Inc., and

Dina Katabi Dina Katabi ( ar, دينا قَتابي) is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and the director of the MIT Wireless Center. Academic biography Katabi received a bachelor's degree from the ...

, MIT professor and director of the MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing.

HackMIT 2017

HackMIT was held in September 2017, and over 1200 hackers came together from all around the world. Keynote speakers included

Steve Huffman Steve Huffman, also known by his Reddit username spez (), is an American web developer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Reddit, a social news and discussion website, which ranks in the top 20 websites in the world. He also co ...

, co-founder and CEO of Reddit and

Kyle Vogt Kyle Vogt is an American engineer, entrepreneur, technology executive and robotics pioneer. In 2013, Vogt founded Cruise Automation, where he currently serves as the company's President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer. Cruis ...

, Founder and CEO of Cruise Automation.

Projects

Over the years, HackMIT has seen a wide variety of hacks, ranging from new web and mobile app concepts to novel hardware/software interfaces to machine learning and computer vision projects. In particular, HackMIT emphasizes building working prototypes rather than business plans or ideas, and participants are encouraged to be open about the technical challenges they faced in the judging process. Some notable projects from past HackMIT events include: * Lean On Me, a mental health platform which matches users to peer supporters * Controlio, an app that allows users to control their computer via SMS and voice control * Project Naptha, a browser extension

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

for Google Chrome that allows users to highlight,

copy Copy may refer to: *Copying or the product of copying (including the plural "copies"); the duplication of information or an artifact **Cut, copy and paste, a method of reproducing text or other data in computing **File copying **Photocopying, a pr ...

, edit and

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text from within images.

Blueprint

The HackMIT organizing team also hosts a high school hackathon, called Blueprint, on MIT's campus in the winter. In past years, this event has featured separate learning and hacking days, with students at MIT volunteering to teach classes on introductory web and mobile app development.

Open Source

HackMIT has developed open-source software for the hackathon community, releasing all of their internal and external tools o
code.hackmit.org
HackMIT software lik
HELPq
an
Gavel
has been used by dozens of events.

Puzzles

Since 2014, HackMIT has released an annual admissions puzzle, similar to an online

puzzlehunt A puzzle hunt (sometimes рuzzlehunt) is a puzzle game where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles. A puzzle hunt can happen at a particular location, in multiple locations, or via the Internet. In a puzzle hunt, a puzzle is usually not acc ...

that guarantees admission to the first 50 teams.

References

{{reflist Hackathons Software developer communities Massachusetts Institute of Technology Software development events Recurring events established in 2012 2012 establishments in Massachusetts